Here's a (really big) tip

Wednesday

Feb 12, 2014 at 2:00 AM

Blessings: Three waitresses at a restaurant in Caledonia, Ill., were recently given tips of $5,000 each by a customer who overheard them chatting about their education ambitions, student loans and other financial matters. The woman said she wanted to help them with school —ťand everything else in life." She wouldn't let them refuse the money, saying, "Put it in your pocket. God sent me here to help you." The woman insisted on anonymity (but obviously God did not).

Blessings: Three waitresses at a restaurant in Caledonia, Ill., were recently given tips of $5,000 each by a customer who overheard them chatting about their education ambitions, student loans and other financial matters. The woman said she wanted to help them with school —¦and everything else in life." She wouldn't let them refuse the money, saying, "Put it in your pocket. God sent me here to help you." The woman insisted on anonymity (but obviously God did not).

Easy Rider: You've missed your chance to acquire Pope Francis's 2013 Dyna Super Glide Harley-Davidson; it sold at a charity auction last week for $327,000. His H-D leather jacket that also sold, which was autographed by the Pope himself, went for about $70,000. Vatican officials declined to say whether the Pope had ever ridden the bike himself, but said the proceeds went to Caritas Roma, a soup kitchen and hostel for the homeless in Rome. (Back to the Pope Mobile.)

Stowaways? Customs officers at Heathrow Airport in London discovered 13 iguanas hidden in socks inside the suitcase of a woman who arrived last week from the Bahamas. Officials said they were all San Salvador rock iguanas, a rare (and endangered) species. They arrested the smuggler and turned her menagerie over to a specialist vet while they try to determine the best way to safeguard them. (Stocking puppets?)

Who's counting? According to the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, the number-one target for Jay Leno's jokes over his 22 years as host of The Tonight Show was (drum roll, please) Bill Clinton, who suffered (earned?) that "honor" 4,607 times. That was over 10 percent of Leno's monologue joke total of over 43,000. (That might explain why Clinton was never asked to be a guest on the show.)

Strad grab: A Wisconsin man, Universal Knowledge Allah (really), 36, was recently arrested for mugging violinist Frank Almond and stealing his ca. 1715 Lipinski Stradivarius, which was insured for a cool $5 million. Therein lies the rub: the insurance company wasn't about to let that one go, and helped police track Allah down. They found the instrument in a suitcase in his Milwaukee attic. (Not quite as easy as he thought.)

Bootstrap operation: A generous woman in Astana, Kazakhstan, recently gave a pair of boots to a friend in need. She didn't realize how generous she was being, however, having forgotten that she had used the boots to stash about $6,500 in cash. Her "friend" and her daughter-in-law found the money, of course, and spent it, according to a report in RIA Novosti. Police declined to prosecute, but the woman is suing to get her money back. (Finders keepers?)

Speaking of stashes, Rudy Lawrence had long collected coin change in his desk drawer, and when he recently moved from Denver to La Jolla, he asked a coin collector to check them out. One of them turned out to be a 1974 aluminum penny, one of only 10 minted — all thought to have been destroyed. It's expected to draw about $250,000 when offered it for sale in April. (It's not too late to grab this one.)

Coming soon to York? Residents of Mansfield, Mass., have recently complained to police that they've been attacked in public by aggressive wild turkeys. State wildlife officials have issued a guide titled, "Preventing Conflict with Turkeys," which advises folks not to feed them or show signs of fear. (The birds, however, are apparently paying no heed.)

Remember — the hardest decision in life is whether to give up or try harder. — JEC

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